Help identifying Appalachain Plant

[Charles R Allen]

I ran across this plant while hiking around the Appalachain mountans a
while ago and I cannot find it's name or a reference to it. It's a
"white" plant, moderately translucent, void of noticable pigment. It
grows only one stem at a time and the flower resembles a bell hanging on
the top of the erect stem. They grew in small clusters. There don't seem
to be any leaves on the white stem. It may be a fungus and I'm barking up
the wrong tree.... but I seem to remember looking it up in the Audubon
guide to wildflowers once... but I can't find it again.

Any help finding a reference to the plant would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
-Chuck

[David J Bockman]

Hi Chuck,

Probably Monotropa uniflora, aka Indian Pipe.

See
http://www.wellesley.edu/Activities/homepage/web/Species/pindianpipe.html

Dave

"Charles R Allen" > wrote in message
urdue.edu...
> I ran across this plant while hiking around the Appalachain mountans a
> while ago and I cannot find it's name or a reference to it. It's a
> "white" plant, moderately translucent, void of noticable pigment. It
> grows only one stem at a time and the flower resembles a bell hanging on
> the top of the erect stem. They grew in small clusters. There don't seem
> to be any leaves on the white stem. It may be a fungus and I'm barking up
> the wrong tree.... but I seem to remember looking it up in the Audubon
> guide to wildflowers once... but I can't find it again.
>
> Any help finding a reference to the plant would be most appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> -Chuck

[maxsilverstar@yahoo.com]

On Wed, 3 Sep 2003 09:32:58 -0500, Charles R Allen > wrote:

>I ran across this plant while hiking around the Appalachain mountans a
>while ago and I cannot find it's name or a reference to it. It's a
>"white" plant, moderately translucent, void of noticable pigment. It
>grows only one stem at a time and the flower resembles a bell hanging on
>the top of the erect stem. They grew in small clusters. There don't seem
>to be any leaves on the white stem. It may be a fungus and I'm barking up
>the wrong tree.... but I seem to remember looking it up in the Audubon
>guide to wildflowers once... but I can't find it again.
>
>Any help finding a reference to the plant would be most appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>-Chuck

It's a fascinating plant called Monotropa uniflora and Indian Pipe. For a photo
and basic information including taxonomy see
http://www.rook.org/earl/bwca/nature/herbs/monotropa.html
The linked article 'Ghosts of Summer's Woods' has lots more information.

PLANTS has the US distribution in clickable map form and more images.
http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/plant_profile.cgi?symbol=MOUN3

Indian Pipe has only one close relative, Pinesap. For info and pictures see
http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/monotropahypo.html

There's lots more about this plant on the Web. A Google search on the botanical
name will turn up almost 5,000 hits.

Happy surfing.